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Ruling may reshape athletics

Schools face federal guideline for athletes with disabilities

The Oak Hill School basketball team and the STARS Academy team practice at the school in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Education states that all schools in the country must include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options.

Dusty Compton | Tuscaloosa News

By Jamon SmithStaff Writer

Published: Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, February 9, 2013 at 11:28 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | LaPatrick Stokes ran full speed down the court, his metallic gold basketball uniform making him look like a golden blur.

He skidded to a halt at the 3-point line as an opposing player leaped in front of him, grasping for the basketball in Stokes’ hands.

Stokes, the captain of Oak Hill’s three-time state championship-winning Special Olympics basketball team, dipped and swayed his torso, evading the STARS Academy player — an alternative school program housed at Oak Hill — while looking for an open teammate. Finding none, he jumped and shot a 3-pointer.

The ball swooshed through the net, without touching the rim.

The gym erupted in applause.

“I like basketball a lot,” Stokes, 19, said after the game. “I put a lot of work into it. I like playing in the championships the most.

“I think every school should offer sports to every student. If I couldn’t play sports, it’d hurt a lot. It’s my favorite thing in life right now.”

Oak Hill has offered a full range of sports options to its special needs student population for decades through the Special Olympics. But those same sports opportunities aren’t offered in the same capacity to special needs students at other schools.

That soon may change.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights sent a letter to every state department of education and public school system, stating that the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that students with disabilities aren’t being given equal opportunity to participate in athletics in public schools.

Seth Galanter, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights and author of the letter, said students with disabilities have the legal right to play sports and that public school systems must provide them with opportunities.

“Participation in extracurricular athletics can be a critical part of a student’s overall educational experience,” Galanter said in a news release. “Schools must ensure equal access to that rewarding experience for students with disabilities, and the Office for Civil Rights encourages school districts to work with their community and athletic associations to develop broad and increased athletic opportunities for students with disabilities.”

The letter states that disabled students must be given opportunities to play sports with non-disabled students and make “reasonable modifications” to sports programs that allow disabled students an equal opportunity to play.

However, that doesn’t mean that every disabled student who wants to play sports should automatically make the team, Galanter said. Schools can still require that students demonstrate a certain level of skill and ability needed to play the sport. The selection process or criteria just can’t be discriminatory.

The letter also states that providing “unnecessarily separate or different services” for disabled students counts as discriminatory. But if students have severe disabilities that don’t allow them to play on existing sports teams even when modifications are made to accommodate them, schools systems should create alternative sports opportunities for those students.

‘Long overdue’

LaMonica Herron-McCoy, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of West Alabama, said the move is long overdue.

“Over the years, I’ve heard people say they’d like to be involved in sports,” Herron-McCoy said. “Those opportunities have not existed for students with disabilities here. I think this being implemented is way past due.

“Anything that people without disabilities can do, people with disabilities deserve the same opportunities,” she said. “I think the programs should be as normal as possible. If there needs to be modifications made to existing programs, they need to make them. I think it’s well worth it because they are citizens.”

Malissa Valdes-Hubert, public information manager for the Alabama Department of Education, said school systems in Alabama are already supposed to provide students with disabilities equal opportunity for non-academic and extracurricular activities, according to the Alabama Administrative Code, which outlines the policies and procedures that all Alabama school systems must follow.

She said the state department will comply with the letter, but they need to know what other agencies such as the Alabama High School Athletic Association, are going to do first before they develop a plan.

“The Alabama State Department of Education believes that all children, including children with disabilities, must have an equal opportunity to participate in non-academic and extracurricular activities and we will continue to work with education agencies to ensure this happens at the local school level,” Valdes-Hubert said.

“We do not have much more to offer at this point,” she said.

Officials in the Tuscaloosa city and county school systems said individual schools in their systems already provide sports opportunities for students with special needs. They also said they’re going to follow the state department’s lead and will not create a plan to implement any changes on how they operate until they get further guidance.

“I think our high schools and schools now try to work with any child who wants to participate,” said Tuscaloosa County Schools Deputy Superintendent Walter Davie. “They try to give the best access they can and make it open to students with disabilities. We certainly will review this information and see what the guidance from the state becomes.”

Mike Daria, assistant superintendent of general administration for the Tuscaloosa City School System, said he thinks the system does a good job in providing opportunities for athletes with disabilities, but they will use this opportunity to examine their policies when they get guidance from the state department of education.

“We want to make sure we’re interpreting it the same way that others in the state are and otherwise,” Daria said. “We’re confident that our current programs are offering a well-rounded school experience for all students.”

As of Feb. 6, about 15 percent of the county school system’s 17,608 total students were identified as non-gifted special education students, according to school officials. About 14 percent of the city school system’s 10,369 total students are identified as non-gifted special education students.

Linda Harper, principal at Oak Hill, which is a school that has a 100 percent special needs population outside of the alternative school program also housed there, said providing sports opportunities for the school’s students has been easy. But she said that it would be a challenging task for schools that don’t specialize in serving a special needs population.

“Complying with this for us will hardly be a change,” Harper said. “I think it’s going to really impact the larger schools. But I would like to see that change happen because a lot of students leave Oak Hill and they’re not able to participate in certain sports. We had a young man return from his home school to Oak Hill because there wasn’t an emphasis on Special Olympics.

“It’s going to take some effort on the schools part, but it’s doable,” she said.

Nancy Rhodes, a member of the Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities and mother of an 18-year-old Hillcrest High School student with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome — a severe form of epilepsy — said she has concerns that the Alabama Department of Education and the local school systems won’t correctly interpret the Office of Civil Rights’ letter.

“I believe the school systems are going to interpret the letter to say as long as students can keep up, they can participate,” Rhodes said. “I think that’s totally wrong. I think that every child, no matter what, should have the right to participate in as many physical activities as possible in school.”

Rhodes said special education students are suffering unnecessarily as a direct result of not being allowed to participate in organized sports.

“Typically, schools tell us that our children cannot participate and as a result they become sedentary and overweight,” she said. “That’s what happened to my son. He’s become sedentary and is having behavior issues because he needs to burn that energy off. He’s cognitively a 2-year-old, but physically you wouldn’t know that anything’s wrong with him. He can run and is very athletic. He loves basketball. Derrick is not going to be able to hold a desk job, but he can do physical things. Schools need to tap into that.”

“I think this is great that the U.S. Department of Education is doing this, but I’m wondering why it took them so long to get to this?” she said. “Where were their rights before? No child should be denied rights. In fact, the children who are a struggling should be given more of an opportunity.”

<p>TUSCALOOSA | LaPatrick Stokes ran full speed down the court, his metallic gold basketball uniform making him look like a golden blur.</p><p>He skidded to a halt at the 3-point line as an opposing player leaped in front of him, grasping for the basketball in Stokes' hands.</p><p>“Come on, Spinner!” students in the bleachers of Oak Hill School's gym yelled. “Come on!”</p><p>Stokes, the captain of Oak Hill's three-time state championship-winning Special Olympics basketball team, dipped and swayed his torso, evading the STARS Academy player — an alternative school program housed at Oak Hill — while looking for an open teammate. Finding none, he jumped and shot a 3-pointer.</p><p>The ball swooshed through the net, without touching the rim.</p><p>The gym erupted in applause.</p><p>“I like basketball a lot,” Stokes, 19, said after the game. “I put a lot of work into it. I like playing in the championships the most.</p><p>“I think every school should offer sports to every student. If I couldn't play sports, it'd hurt a lot. It's my favorite thing in life right now.”</p><p>Oak Hill has offered a full range of sports options to its special needs student population for decades through the Special Olympics. But those same sports opportunities aren't offered in the same capacity to special needs students at other schools. </p><p>That soon may change.</p><p>Last week, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights sent a letter to every state department of education and public school system, stating that the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that students with disabilities aren't being given equal opportunity to participate in athletics in public schools.</p><p>Seth Galanter, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Civil Rights and author of the letter, said students with disabilities have the legal right to play sports and that public school systems must provide them with opportunities.</p><p>“Participation in extracurricular athletics can be a critical part of a student's overall educational experience,” Galanter said in a news release. “Schools must ensure equal access to that rewarding experience for students with disabilities, and the Office for Civil Rights encourages school districts to work with their community and athletic associations to develop broad and increased athletic opportunities for students with disabilities.”</p><p>The letter states that disabled students must be given opportunities to play sports with non-disabled students and make “reasonable modifications” to sports programs that allow disabled students an equal opportunity to play.</p><p>However, that doesn't mean that every disabled student who wants to play sports should automatically make the team, Galanter said. Schools can still require that students demonstrate a certain level of skill and ability needed to play the sport. The selection process or criteria just can't be discriminatory.</p><p>The letter also states that providing “unnecessarily separate or different services” for disabled students counts as discriminatory. But if students have severe disabilities that don't allow them to play on existing sports teams even when modifications are made to accommodate them, schools systems should create alternative sports opportunities for those students.</p><p>'Long overdue'</p><p>LaMonica Herron-McCoy, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of West Alabama, said the move is long overdue.</p><p>“Over the years, I've heard people say they'd like to be involved in sports,” Herron-McCoy said. “Those opportunities have not existed for students with disabilities here. I think this being implemented is way past due.</p><p>“Anything that people without disabilities can do, people with disabilities deserve the same opportunities,” she said. “I think the programs should be as normal as possible. If there needs to be modifications made to existing programs, they need to make them. I think it's well worth it because they are citizens.”</p><p>Malissa Valdes-Hubert, public information manager for the Alabama Department of Education, said school systems in Alabama are already supposed to provide students with disabilities equal opportunity for non-academic and extracurricular activities, according to the Alabama Administrative Code, which outlines the policies and procedures that all Alabama school systems must follow.</p><p>She said the state department will comply with the letter, but they need to know what other agencies such as the Alabama High School Athletic Association, are going to do first before they develop a plan.</p><p>“The Alabama State Department of Education believes that all children, including children with disabilities, must have an equal opportunity to participate in non-academic and extracurricular activities and we will continue to work with education agencies to ensure this happens at the local school level,” Valdes-Hubert said. </p><p>“We do not have much more to offer at this point,” she said.</p><p>Officials in the Tuscaloosa city and county school systems said individual schools in their systems already provide sports opportunities for students with special needs. They also said they're going to follow the state department's lead and will not create a plan to implement any changes on how they operate until they get further guidance.</p><p>“I think our high schools and schools now try to work with any child who wants to participate,” said Tuscaloosa County Schools Deputy Superintendent Walter Davie. “They try to give the best access they can and make it open to students with disabilities. We certainly will review this information and see what the guidance from the state becomes.”</p><p>Mike Daria, assistant superintendent of general administration for the Tuscaloosa City School System, said he thinks the system does a good job in providing opportunities for athletes with disabilities, but they will use this opportunity to examine their policies when they get guidance from the state department of education.</p><p>“We want to make sure we're interpreting it the same way that others in the state are and otherwise,” Daria said. “We're confident that our current programs are offering a well-rounded school experience for all students.”</p><p>As of Feb. 6, about 15 percent of the county school system's 17,608 total students were identified as non-gifted special education students, according to school officials. About 14 percent of the city school system's 10,369 total students are identified as non-gifted special education students.</p><p>Linda Harper, principal at Oak Hill, which is a school that has a 100 percent special needs population outside of the alternative school program also housed there, said providing sports opportunities for the school's students has been easy. But she said that it would be a challenging task for schools that don't specialize in serving a special needs population.</p><p>“Complying with this for us will hardly be a change,” Harper said. “I think it's going to really impact the larger schools. But I would like to see that change happen because a lot of students leave Oak Hill and they're not able to participate in certain sports. We had a young man return from his home school to Oak Hill because there wasn't an emphasis on Special Olympics.</p><p>“It's going to take some effort on the schools part, but it's doable,” she said.</p><p>Nancy Rhodes, a member of the Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities and mother of an 18-year-old Hillcrest High School student with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome — a severe form of epilepsy — said she has concerns that the Alabama Department of Education and the local school systems won't correctly interpret the Office of Civil Rights' letter.</p><p>“I believe the school systems are going to interpret the letter to say as long as students can keep up, they can participate,” Rhodes said. “I think that's totally wrong. I think that every child, no matter what, should have the right to participate in as many physical activities as possible in school.”</p><p>Rhodes said special education students are suffering unnecessarily as a direct result of not being allowed to participate in organized sports.</p><p>“Typically, schools tell us that our children cannot participate and as a result they become sedentary and overweight,” she said. “That's what happened to my son. He's become sedentary and is having behavior issues because he needs to burn that energy off. He's cognitively a 2-year-old, but physically you wouldn't know that anything's wrong with him. He can run and is very athletic. He loves basketball. Derrick is not going to be able to hold a desk job, but he can do physical things. Schools need to tap into that.”</p><p>“I think this is great that the U.S. Department of Education is doing this, but I'm wondering why it took them so long to get to this?” she said. “Where were their rights before? No child should be denied rights. In fact, the children who are a struggling should be given more of an opportunity.”</p><p>Reach Jamon Smith at jamon.smith@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.</p>